Anti-virus pioneer John McAfee wanted for murder in Belize?

John McAfee speaks last week after donating equipment to the Belizean police. (Photo courtesy of 7 Belize News)

You are probably used to seeing the name “McAfee” as the ubiquitous anti-virus software searches your computer for viruses, but according to Gizmodo, it’s the police in Belize who are searching for founder John McAfee — to face murder charges.

Gizmodo:

According to Marco Vidal, head of the national police force’s Gang Suppression Unit, McAfee is a prime suspect in the murder of American expatriate Gregory Faull, who was gunned down Saturday night at his home in San Pedro Town on the island of Ambergris Caye. (Read the full story here)

Last week, Gizmodo reported on McAfee’s reported increasingly erratic behavior, that he had been posting on a Russian website about purifying bath salts and that he’s been involved with prostitues and local gang leaders. It’s a bizarre story.

Jeff Wise, who wrote Gizmodo’s piece, told Fox News that “McAfee had been a hard-core drug addict in his 30s and 40s…He moved to Belize and apparently pursued several lines of business, from creating a new form of herbal medicine to helping save the country from poverty.”

McAfee, who has been liquidating his real estate holdings over recent years has made the Central American country his home, is no stranger to the local press. After the GSU descended on his compound, discovering McAfee with a 17-year-old girl, a chemical lab and a cache of small arms, McAfee started a public relations campaign, making a “lavish” donation of stun guns and handcuffs and pepper spray to the cops, says 7 News Belize:

He also handed over a small vessel with engine to the San Pedro Police. The donation comes out of a public meeting on crime held last week in San Pedro. Mayor Daniel Guerrero explained that after the meeting McAfee reached out with an offer of equipment as well as use of his boat, and apartments on northern Ambergris Caye.

7 News Belize editors are similarly skeptical of McAfee, noting that Gizmodo writer Jeff Wise wrote he ”became convinced (that McAfee) was a compulsive liar if not an outright psychopath” in their published report of the donation.

McAfee founded the company as McAfee Associates in Santa Clara, Calif., in 1987. It was most recently sold to Intel in 2010 and the founder is no longer involved with the company.